Cyprus Comic Con is returning in 2026 bigger, more ambitious and with aspirations that go far beyond just another pop culture event. With more international guests, new venues, an even greater emphasis on gaming, cosplay and game development, and an audience now traveling to Cyprus specifically for the event, CCC is claiming a broader role for Nicosia and Cyprus.
Peter Hvass, Co-Founder and Organiser of Cyprus Comic Con, spoke to InBusinessNews on behalf of the organisers, to talk about what is changing this year, the opportunities created for tourism, business and the creative economy, and also the next big challenge: for the organisation to acquire the infrastructure and support it needs to continue to grow.
Above all, however, he talked about what lies at the heart of CCC: a space where thousands of people can, even for a three-day period, leave aside the conventions of everyday life, meet people with the same interests, and truly be themselves.
The team behind the success of Cyprus Comic Con was honoured with the Young Dragon Entrepreneurs Special Award at the 2nd CBN Young Dragon Awards, organised by IMH in February.
In 2025 you exceeded 32,000 visitors to the event. What do you want to achieve this year? Is there a specific goal in terms of traffic, revenue or international impact?
In 2025 we exceeded 32,000 registered ticketed visitors and, if we include free attendance at the outdoor areas and the festival, the total traffic reached up to 40,000. This year we want to prove above all that this scale was not a momentary success, but a solid foundation on which something much greater can be built.
We are not chasing a ticket number to put in a press release. We want people to stay longer, discover more, feel safe and leave saying it was worth the trip. Already, from pre-sales alone, we are seeing visitors from over 30 countries. This shatters the old idea that Cyprus is a small, isolated market. We are a vibrant hub for the European market, with real buying power and global visibility when we create something good enough to be worth paying attention to.
As a non-profit organisation, our goal is not to make as much profit as possible. Every extra euro from tickets, sponsorships, investments or donations goes back into the experience, infrastructure, guests, accessibility, safety and creative communities.
Our ambition is clear. With the right venue, the right transport connections and serious partnerships in flights and accommodation, Cyprus Comic Con can reach 100,000 visitors. To do this, we need more capacity and more support.
What is essentially changing at Cyprus Comic Con 2026 compared to last year's event? What is the biggest investment you made this year?
The essential change is that this year we didn't just add more content. We worked to make the entire event function like a small city of culture, technology, and entertainment, where each community has its own space but remains part of a unified whole.
Cosplay has taken over a whole building. Gaming and local game development are growing significantly. We have three music stages, the Band Stage, the Alternative Music Stage and the Medieval Stage, along with the Indoor Main Stage, the Arena and independent spaces for talks, workshops, tournaments and communities. At the same time, we invested much more in the digital visitor journey, in information, in implementation, in production, in the flow of the audience and in connecting the whole of Cyprus with the event.
The biggest investment isn't a single stage or a name. It's the overall infrastructure needed to turn a huge idea into a safe, clean, and cohesive experience for tens of thousands of people.
We invest everything we have in the State Fair and see it as the historic, beautiful and at the same time progressive home of the CCC. For me, the State Fair and the old Nicosia Airport were two of the most important early investments of the Republic of Cyprus. It is worth protecting this heritage and giving it a new future.
It is also worth mentioning that this year’s CCC is headlined by Dondake Ltd, the company belonging to the five main organisers of Comic Con. This role is not a financial sponsorship. It is a conscious choice to highlight the real contribution of the people behind CCC: the time, expertise and range of professional skills of the five organisers and the wider team. This work has real value and deserves to be recognised. At the same time, external support remains essential for CCC to continue to grow.
This year, a particularly strong line-up of international guests has been announced. Who would you single out as a guest that no one should miss?
This is almost unfair to answer, because the line-up has very different generations and worlds within it. Hiroki Takahashi is a name that anime and Dragon Ball fans have been waiting years to see in Cyprus. Dave Rodgers has been associated with an entire culture around Initial D and eurobeat. Clive Russell, Vincent Regan, Callum Kerr and Jonny Coyne bring vast experience from international productions, while the cast of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 reaches a completely new, global gaming audience.
But I would also distinguish what happens when international and Cypriot creators share the same stage. Panos Tsaparas, along with Katerina Xanthou this year, is part of this picture. The CCC is not just a parade of famous names. It is the moment when the international level meets the talent that is already here and tells it that it belongs in the same conversation. If someone must not miss anything, I would say not to miss this meeting altogether.
Gaming is getting even bigger this year. What do you have in store for gamers and what experience will make them want to stay longer?
We want to break away from the old perception that gaming at a convention means a few consoles and a tournament in a corner. There are strong events, with Super Smash Bros. and Tekken 8, big prizes, specially designed spaces and Tekken Cyprus with us for the first time. There are soundproof booths, talks and content that allows the visitor to play, watch, learn and meet people.
But most importantly, it is a bridge to the game development and wider technology sector of Cyprus. We are joined by CYGMA, the Cyprus Game Makers Association, a stable partner of CCC, as well as developers, artists, animators, designers, programmers and teams trying to turn their ideas into real games and businesses.
Many children and young people in Cyprus learn code, 3D, animation, sound design and storytelling with enormous imagination, but they grow up with the belief that, in order to build a serious professional career, they will have to leave Cyprus at some point.
That's where I believe CCC can do something much more meaningful than just fill a space. It can become a breeding ground for sticky talent: a place where the creative and tech worlds meet, find collaborators, see audiences react to their work, and gain a reason to stay. We want to reverse the brain drain, one person and one team at a time.
CYGMA, tech companies, universities, communities and we are all pushing towards the same bigger goal: an island that doesn't mechanically extract its most creative minds, but gives them space to take root, create and grow here.
That's why we are open to technology companies, game studios, investors, educational institutions and any organisation that wants to participate. There is no shortage of talent in Cyprus. What is often missing are the opportunities, the meeting places, the capital and the belief that a creative person can build a real career path by staying in Cyprus.
Cosplay is now one of the strongest elements of Comic Con. What will we see different this year at the Cosplay Village and the major competitions?
The Cosplay Village now has an entire building at its disposal. We’re not just talking about international special guest cosplayers or big competitions. We’re creating a complete ecosystem with booths for creators, prop makers, armour makers, photographers and people who work with wig styling, sewing, make-up and fabrication. There’s a separate stage for talks and workshops, so people can see not only the final costume but also the knowledge, hours, mistakes and technique that go into making it.
The big competitions remain spectacular, but we want to equally highlight the craft, presentation and personal journey of each participant. Cosplay is not just a hobby for once a year. It can become a career. Already in Cyprus we see businesses hiring cosplayers for advertisements and promotional material. A recent example is the Foody video commercial. There are professional opportunities in costume construction, props, performance, photography, content creation and brand activations, as long as we start treating this talent with the seriousness it deserves.
And there's something deeper. In our audience surveys, the vast majority of respondents tell us that CCC is the only place where they can truly be themselves, without feeling like they have to hide aspects of their personality, and where they feel safe, accepted, and understood. Cosplay is perhaps the most visible version of this freedom.
A large portion of visitors now come from abroad. Do you think that Cyprus Comic Con can develop into an autonomous tourism product for Cyprus?
Yes, and in fact it has already started to happen organically. In 2025, we estimate that 2,000 to 3,000 people traveled from abroad specifically for the CCC. Many don't come once and disappear. They meet people in Cyprus, exchange ideas and creativity, make friends and return every year.
We achieved all of this mainly through our own grassroots promotion and the work of our partners and friends abroad, without a large international tourism mechanism behind us.
This year, just from pre-sales, we have visitors from over 30 countries. We also created a nationwide bus service so that people can come to the State Fair from other cities and return in the evening. These are small pieces of evidence that when you solve practical obstacles, demand appears.
With substantial support from stakeholders such as the Deputy Ministry of Tourism, airlines, hotels, transport and municipalities, and with collaboration between CCC and other major promoters and organisers, we can create a brand new category of tourism for Cyprus: travel centered around world-class events, conventions and happenings. Cyprus doesn’t have to be just sun and sea. It can be the place where you travel to meet your community.
We are completely open to approaches from hotels, airlines, travel agencies, restaurants, transportation and businesses of any category that want to build travel packages or interesting activities together throughout the year.
What would it take for Cyprus to become a destination for pop-culture tourism and not just host a big event?
We need to first treat major events as a real tourism and development product, not as a three-day event that appears and then disappears from the institutional map. This means coordinating flights, accommodations, local transportation, city experiences and joint international promotion. It means packages that a visitor from abroad can easily buy and reasons to come earlier or stay longer.
It also needs a calendar. Nicosia is ready for more events and happenings around pop culture, gaming, comics, animation, cosplay and music. CCC has the network to bring them together: partner events around the world and in Cyprus, creative groups, communities, artists and businesses. We are not asking anyone to invent this market from scratch. The market, the audience and the relationships already exist.
We have a warm relationship with Mayor Charalambos Prountzos and the Municipality of Nicosia, as well as relations with the OEB and the CCCI. We want to sit at the same table with all those who believe that the capital can become a city of major events, creation and modern culture. As a non-profit organisation we have come a long way with personal work, sponsorships and reinvestment. For the next leap, we need funding, investments and partners who want to build lasting relationships with us.
Are you seeing an increase in interest from Cypriot businesses that until a few years ago would not have considered Comic Con a place for marketing?
The answer is now visible before we even speak: it is visible on the wall of our sponsors and partners. Businesses that a few years ago might have seen Comic Con as something specialised, today understand that there is a huge, young, creative and extremely active audience here. Even more positive is that they are not just coming to put a logo. Every year more brands want to participate creatively and they come with a much better understanding of what CCC means to their world.
The loss of our previous headline sponsor and the lack of funding from the Deputy Ministry of Culture this year was initially a huge shock. I won’t sugarcoat it. We worked non-stop, built new relationships and bridged the gap with our own blood, sweat and tears. The fact that we are finally presenting such a large event, with a whole new circle of partners, is a testament to the resilience of the team and the value that the market now sees.
The next step is particularly exciting: international brands are now approaching CCC directly. Companies from entertainment, collectibles and games, technology and other sectors are starting to see Cyprus on the map through us. Very important things are already being prepared for 2027. We are talking about international giants that can invest more and more in Cyprus, not only in CCC, but in the businesses, creators, communities and fandoms around it.
The message is simple: Cyprus is not a small, isolated market that should be ignored. It is a vibrant European hub, with an audience that has strong purchasing power and a presence and impact far beyond our borders.
As you mentioned, the event is held in Nicosia, but the audience comes from all over Cyprus and abroad. Is there room for more collaboration with hotels, airlines, restaurants and other businesses to create a complete Comic Con package?
There is not just room, but ready demand. The international visitor needs a simple path: flight, hotel, transportation to and from the State Fair, ticket, information about the city and reasons to stay another two or three days. The visitor from another city in Cyprus needs a reliable and easy connection to the venue.
A good package can include special accommodation prices, airline offers, shuttle routes, city passes, themed menus, after-events, visits to cultural venues and activities before and after the CCC. This way, the benefit does not stay within the boundaries of the Exhibition. It is spread to hotels, restaurants, cafés, taxis, buses, retail and cultural venues in the city.
We have the audience, the content, the international network and the trust of the communities. What we are looking for are partners who can add the remaining pieces. We are open to any serious approach for packages, actions and happenings during the three-day event and throughout the year.
Gaming, animation, the comics industry and cosplay have developed into major markets internationally. Is Cyprus… too small a fish to compete with them?
It is small geographically. This does not mean small in imagination, ability or influence. The proof is already in front of us: tens of thousands of visitors, hundreds of creators and companies, audiences from more than 30 countries in this year's pre-sales and international brands approaching us without us having to explain to them where Cyprus is.
Our competitive advantage is not that we produce more content than the US, Japan or the UK. It is that in a small place we can bring together game developers, programmers, illustrators, animators, cosplayers, musicians, filmmakers, brands, educational institutions and audiences. This density can create collaborations at a tremendous speed, if there is space, funding and support.
That's why I'm so passionate about talent retention. There are people here learning to code, design worlds, animate, make props, and tell stories. If we give them a stage, a network, clients, investors, and a reason to stay, Cyprus can become an exporter of creative intellectual property, not just a consumer of it. CCC, CYGMA, and the entire local ecosystem can act as an accelerator for that future.
Artificial intelligence is already changing the way comics, games, animation, and digital art are created. How do you view this change? Do you see it more as an opportunity or a challenge?
It is both. It would be disingenuous to present AI as either a magic button that solves everything or something that can simply be banned and made to disappear. It can make tools accessible, reduce technical barriers, help small teams experiment, and speed up parts of a production. For a small market like Cyprus, this can open doors.
At the same time, there are very serious issues of consent, intellectual property, remuneration, transparency, and the very value of human creation. We do not want a future where the people who built the culture and produced the work become invisible raw material. Our position is anthropocentric: to use technology to empower the creator, not to erase the creator from the equation.
And here, having real communities is important. At CCC, you can talk to the artist, the developer, the animator, and the cosplayer. You can see the process, buy directly from them, and understand how much work goes into the result. This human connection will become more important, not less, as synthetic tools proliferate.
An event of 40,000 people needs infrastructure. How limited are you currently by the State Fair space and what would be the ideal venue for the Comic Con of the future?
The State Fair is the largest exhibition space on the island and we now use virtually everything that can be used. We love it. We have invested our own money, time and technical work to upgrade the infrastructure and keep it operational. We consider it the historic and beautiful home of the CCC. But the reality is that we have reached its limits, while hundreds of creators, groups and companies are now on a waiting list because we simply cannot accommodate them.
The ideal next venue could offer up to 20,000 square meters of continuous and flexible indoor space, additional serious outdoor space, full air conditioning, modern electrical and network backbone, loading access, warehouses, accessibility, public transportation and safe management of very large flows. We are not asking for luxury. We are asking for the infrastructure that an event of this scale requires.
We also have high hopes for the upgrade of the existing State Fair. The return of Halls 3 and 28 would allow us to grow quickly, especially since they are more modern and fully air-conditioned. We hope that someone will seriously invest in the development of the space.
At the same time, Mayor Prountzos’ plan for a park on most of the remaining area is extremely exciting and we have publicly supported him. We envision shade, greenery, open squares, amphitheatres and spaces for performances, concerts and temporary outdoor activities. The development of the venue and a real public park are not competing ideas. Together they can create a unique destination for Nicosia.
With the right infrastructure, we have the potential to become one of the largest events of its kind in the world. We are already the largest in the immediate area and one of the largest in Europe. I will not pretend that we will surpass San Diego Comic-Con. However, with a large enough venue and organised transportation, flight and accommodation options, we can even surpass the attendance of events such as MCM London. The goal of 100,000 visits is achievable. What is missing now is not the demand but the space.
What are the biggest obstacles to further developing Comic Con today? Space, cost, bureaucracy, human resources, sponsors or something else?
The honest answer is “all of that together,” but not all of them carry the same weight. Space is now the hardest physical limit. Next comes stable funding. We are a non-profit organisation and for years we have been turning every sponsorship, ticket, and personal sacrifice into more content and better infrastructure. This model has proven that it can give birth to something huge. But it is not reasonable to expect it to reach the next level forever on its own.
This year has highlighted how important it is for the CCC to gain a more solid base of support. We say this not as a complaint, but as a clear invitation: we need more sponsors, investors, donors and institutional partners so that something that has already proven its value for Cyprus can fully realise its potential.
There's also a misconception about the group. It's not five or ten volunteers who show up a week in advance. Behind the CCC is a large team of people with an incredible range of skills, and beyond that, the five core organisers work non-stop year-round. Some of us are essentially working two full-time jobs to pay our bills while building the CCC.
Our skills often get lost behind the creation itself. I come from a background in software engineering, systems administration and technical strategy, and also from digital marketing, analytics, PPC, PR, community building, sponsorships and international guest negotiation. Helen combines full-stack development with years of experience in European programs, funding applications and Erasmus, and has been the main coordinator of cosplay since the beginning of CCC. Neo has over twenty years of experience in creative direction and branding. Chip contributes to commercial strategy, sales and partnerships, as well as the practical coordination of vendors and exhibitors. Chris focuses on communications, content and social media, and takes on the coordination of guest travel and hospitality along with important parts of our public communication.
Through Dondake we are, in a way, agents for hire for beautiful and ambitious projects that can help the island grow and gain durability. Cyprus is our home. We love it and we don't want to leave. We believe that Nicosia in particular has tremendous, untapped potential.
We want the work of this group to be recognised and we welcome any form of substantial support: job opportunities, joint projects, sponsorships, donations, investment and institutional cooperation. The CCC is evolving into one of the most important happenings of the year for our country and, in some dimensions, for the entire immediate region. To continue, it cannot rely indefinitely on the exhaustion of the same people.
In the end, are you able to enjoy it or do you get lost in the hustle and bustle and your responsibilities as organisers for that three-day event? Will we see you wandering around the venue in some strange outfit?
The truth is that we are lost in the whirlwind. All five of us, along with the entire team. During that three-day event, there is constant communication on the radios, a phone ringing, a guest who needs to be somewhere, a stage being prepared and a problem that the audience will fortunately never know existed. Fatigue is collective, as is responsibility.
But yes, we enjoy it. For me, it's the moments when I see people come together. The smiles, the laughter, the tears and that almost indescribable wave of emotion and flow that is created when everyone comes together. People raising their fists on the music stage and screaming the lyrics. Someone finally meeting someone who shares the same obscure interest and realising that they are not alone.
We systematically ask our audience what CCC means to them. The vast majority of those who respond tell us that it is the only place where they can truly be themselves, without feeling like they have to hide aspects of their personality, and where they feel safe, accepted, and understood.
And it's kind of sad that so many young people, among them some of the smartest and most creative minds in the country, have so few other things to look forward to with the same eagerness throughout the year.
That's why we do it. Out of love. Because we care. Because we know it matters.
As for the uniforms, let's just say that intention is always there and time usually disappears first. If you see us running from hall to hall with radios, lanyards and the eyes of people who have barely slept, this is probably the most authentic team uniform of the organizers.
Photos: @project.yiorc
(Source: InBusinessNews)
